Penn State running back Akeel Lynch shows off his surprising speed on a 43-yard burst against Kent State last season. Despite being the Lions' No. 3 tailback, Lynch recorded two 100-yard games. Joe Hermitt, PennLive.com

It's not always a great idea to become fixated on the running back depth chart. It can quickly change. Injuries can pile up at one of the sport's most demanding positions.

Think back to 2012, the year Penn State's Zach Zwinak ran for 1,000 yards. He began the season buried on the depth chart behind Bill Belton, Derek Day, Curtis Dukes and even Michael Zordich. But by late October, he had become the workhorse in Bill O'Brien's offense.

The depth chart at running back seems pretty set at Penn State with August camp approaching. You have Zwinak and Bill Belton at the top.

But the Lions' No. 3 option is a talented player who did good things in a limited role last season. He ranks at No. 24 on my list of PSU's most important players.

A couple of points about the list:

Remember, the players are ranked on importance, not pure talent. Some of the Lions' top athletes can be found at the running back and tight end positions but you can't play all of them at once. I don't see how you can rank PSU's No. 3 tailback ahead of, say, a player who projects as backup defensive tackle.

I was tempted to put some of the Lions' talented true freshmen wideouts on the list because I believe a couple of them will help the team this season. But determining which of the wideouts (DeAndre Thompkins, Chris Godwin, Saeed Blacknall?) will emerge is tricky at this point.

This is my second year of assembling the most important Lions' list. Check out the 2013 list.

No. 24: RB AKEEL LYNCH R-So. (6-0, 215)

Key 2013 numbers: Lynch rushed for 358 yards on only 60 carries, averaging 6.0 yards per carry. ... Posted a pair of 100-yard games (Kent State, Eastern Michigan) despite the limited workload. ... Had a long gain of 43 yards against Eastern Michigan.

Worth noting: Lynch has a surprise quickness for a back his size and he can still run downhill between the tackles. He is part-Zwinak, part-Belton. Lynch is one of two Canadians (the other is true freshman QB Michael O'Connor) on the PSU roster.

Quotable: "It's great, we feed off each other as you can see on the sidelines. When one guy scores, we're happy for him. We just rotate each other, we talk to each other, we communicate with each other so it's a very healthy relationship we all have.'' — Akeel Lynch in 2013 on his relationship with Zach Zwinak and Bill Belton.

Why he fits here: Lynch is a talented back, as his production on limited carries last year showed. It would be interesting to see what he could do given 15-20 carries a game but he enters training camp clearly behind Zwinak and Belton. However, as I said at the beginning, things can quickly change at the running back position.